


gold

by burnt_pages



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Wedding Rings, nebulous post-canon au where everything is okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:13:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27933649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burnt_pages/pseuds/burnt_pages
Summary: When Dean first starts thinking about wedding rings, his instinct is to go with silver, of course.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Kudos: 46





	gold

**Author's Note:**

> look i don't have an explanation other than it's been a weird month of being dragged back into past hyperfixations and i got emotional at 3am about letting things exist in your life without needing them to fit a certain definition of "useful" anymore

When Dean first starts thinking about wedding rings, his instinct is to go with silver, of course.

Silver is useful. Silver means protection from monsters, or a way to kill them. Every hunter carries silver weapons, knows what it’s effective against, knows how to use it to keep themselves safe.

Silver is less flashy, too. Wouldn’t draw quite as much attention as other rings might. There’s plausible deniability in silver, reliance on it as a useful tool.

His second thought is to go with iron, or even steel. There’s less that iron can be used for, but no hunter would travel without it. And it’s an age-old ward against ghosts and demons.

He ticks over other metals as well, other resources in a hunter’s arsenal, though Dean isn’t sure about using copper or bronze or brass for wedding rings.

Either option, silver or iron or another, has the added bonus of ensured durability. Everything in Dean’s life has ended up taking a beating at some point, so it’s better to have something sturdy to begin with. These are metals that can withstand the wear and tear of a hunter’s life.

But he doesn’t lead a hunter’s life anymore. Sure, he and Cas will help out with the occasional case or give guidance to other hunters (the younger ones look up to them so much, he doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to it), but they’ve mostly stepped away from active participation. Anyway, he’s much too busy running the bar these days, content to listen to other’s stories and make sure they always have somewhere safe to stop by.

They agree upon traditional gold bands eventually, though he thinks Cas would’ve been happy with whatever, just happy that they’re getting married. He’d indulged plenty of Dean’s worried rambles about the wedding already.

In the end, the gold bands win _because_ they are the opposite of Dean’s initial ideas. Gold bands are flashier than silver or steel, harder to ignore, easier to spot. They couldn’t be mistaken for anything other than a matched pair of wedding rings, and it may have taken Dean his entire life to get to this point but he does not want to hide that fact. He isn’t exactly going to shout it in the streets, but he’ll be able to say _why yes, I do have a husband_ , with a simple piece of jewelry.

And gold is nearly useless to a hunter. It won’t harm a wraith, won’t protect him from a ghost, won’t reveal a shifter. It wouldn’t help him against all the common threats he’s faced over the years.

Gold rings will only have one use, one meaning. Not a back up, not a just-in-case, not a use-in-an-emergency. No alternatives.

Gold doesn’t have to be useful for anything except as a signifier of his marriage to the love of his life, a testament to their freedom and their happiness and their peace.


End file.
